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COLUMN: What happened to all the black people?(Comtex Community Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) BATON ROUGE, La., Sep 01, 2006 (The Daily Reveille, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --This week's tribute to remembering the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina resurfaced many issues facing students on campus. This time last year, the University hosted 33,255 students campus-wide, bringing the black population of students on campus to a little more than 10 percent for the first time in any spring or fall semester during LSU's history. With the exception of a few, the beginning of last spring semester meant many of the visiting students returned back to their home schools, bringing the number of black students back into single digits. As a concerned black, I ask who is to blame for the low number of black students on a campus this size? More blacks reside in the Gulf Coast than anywhere else in the country, so why are there so few black students enrolled? Some like to think that there is academic apathy among blacks that we simply don't want to learn and the "system" is not to blame. I know better than anyone that young blacks can sometimes be overwhelmed with materialism. Cultural apathy does indeed exist, but no more than it does among other ethnicities. It is just not as widely broadcasted. Some also like to argue that international students should be included when considering the ratio of blacks versus whites. This is outrageous and inappropriate because it speculates that all minorities have the same ethnic background which is drastically far from the truth. It sounds to me that somebody's making an idle excuse for a lack of recruitment. This time last year, the influx of students from New Orleans brought the moral of blacks to an all-time high. Despite the catastrophic disaster of Katrina, the quad was full of laughter, and everywhere you looked there were faces of color. Black organizations such as NAACP and Student Equality Commission hosted full meetings and were making intense progress on issues facing the black community on campus. The Office of Multicultural Affairs had its hands full and there was an overall sense of self-fulfillment among blacks. I often wonder what kind of effect the numerical racial gap has on the psyche of both black and white students on campus. If you grew up in Nowhere, La., coming to a professed "flagship" university but only being surrounded by the same element as before isn't an enlightening experience. Reaching a double-digit percentage and then going right back down and not investigating why is not a sign of growth. Malcolm X once said, "You can't drive a knife into a man's back nine inches, pull it out six inches and call it progress." As a native of Los Angeles, I first came to the South wondering where all the diversity was. Where were the Asians, Mexicans and Pacific Islanders? I didn't see any Puerto Ricans, Haitians or Persians. I soon came to realize that sadly this is a very cut and dry place. It is literally black and white. There are sparse communities of other ethnic groups but not enough to make full socieites. So, the recruitment is clearly more widespread than I thought. If, like some cynics believe, cultural apathy is to blame for the lack of blacks on campus, what then needs to be done among the black community? Public schools in urban areas have yet to reach the scholastic range of their white counterparts, so are blacks responsible for mending the public school issues to ensure that black children are properly prepared for college? Parents are responsible for sending their children to school, but once they step on public school grounds it is the charge of the school district to ensure that they are properly educated. Pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans had some of the worst-performing public schools in the state. So what happens when these unprepared students project themselves into the realm of higher education? Are they turned away at the door, or do they hesitate to apply all together? Comparatively, in 2005 the undergraduate enrollment for black, non-hispanic students was 2,332 and the enrollment for white, non-hispanics was 20,673 making the numerical gap 18, 341, the size of a small town. It is also pertinent to take into account the number of black students attending near by Southern University. If Southern were further away, would University enrollment rise? I think not. I believe black students who choose to go to Southern make that decision not based on their academic welfare, but based on the appeal of the university to their ethnic background. If at one university the programs, classes and opportunities appeal to your indigenous environment and the other allows symbols of oppression that offend your culture to be flown freely, what decision would you make? So you ask, if blacks want to be surrounded by that element why not attend Southern or another historically black college or university? Students generally choose a university based on their academic and social programs and anticipate that the university is responsible enough to create programs that appeal to all students. Some theory of administrative reform is thoroughly needed. "The Office of Recruiting Services is making a conscious effort to expand minority recruitment by working with the Office of Mulitcultural Affairs and organizing activity recruiting at predominately African-American schools," say Andy Benoit, director of recruiting services. With all due respect these efforts sound great in theory but without adequate results, progression is still a distant premise. Along with the efforts being made by recruiting services, there should be a standard for ensuring that a specific number of blacks are enrolled each year. If the numerical gap between blacks and whites on campus shrinks, we may just see a collective coming together of students. This may be wishful thinking because the idea of diversification is already taught, but there is some sense in believing that maybe it can eventually be acquired. ----- Contact Shanelle Matthews at [email protected] Copyright (C) 2006 The Daily Reveille via U-WIRE |